Every year, the thought of September 11th, leaves me a little stunned.

Stunned in the sense that I’m a little too reluctant to leave my apartment to deal with the deluge of news trucks parked in our neighborhood, the restrictions and the reading of the names. A little unwilling to be around a television from 8:45 AM for exactly 102 minutes. Every year, I expect the Red Cross to be around the corner handing out small facial tissue packages to wipe away public tears.

The Red Cross is long gone, but the ritual has remained.

Although I am for the reading of the all of the victim’s name catharsis for 9/11 families — it still stings a bit much for me to endure all the names. The air in our area can be a gloriously crisp autumn day, but the air is always heavy.

The visual cues of the news trucks, the bagpipes, and the sounds from the loudspeakers transport me to yesterday. It can be a bit overwhelming sometimes.

Which leads me to wonder…

The environment and landscape in which we have bred this kind of grieving is quickly changing. In a few years, we will no longer have the construction site or the former Deutsche Bank building as a reminder of the injustice and terror will be long gone. What will happen to the rituals? Should they continue as they have for the past 9 years? Or will they evolve?

I was surprised after reading some status’ on our Facebook page, that some of you share these same sentiments. Unsure if it’s right to escape the neighborhood or stay.

It’s definitely food for thought and would love to know yours as we approach the anniversary of 9/11.

The fragments are smaller than a fingernail, but endless amounts of hope for the families of victims of September 11th still waiting to find identifying remains from their loved ones, nearly 9 years later.

48 instances of human bone have been found during reconstruction. The bone fragments were retrieved from otherwise inaccessible areas of the World Trade Center site.

Scientists at the Freshkills landfill have already started work to cross reference the remains with their DNA database.